She preferred the elder of the two sisters, but there was an irresistible grace about the other, whom she could not help caressing with her eyes and tones, as if she were a child.
“Ah! that is charming, poetic, and very applicable! Thank you, Cousin Gabrielle. I will presently ask our poet to divine my emblems. We shall see if he agrees with you.”
“If our poet is in a fit of abstraction, you must ask some one else who certainly will not be,” said Hilda.
Clara blushed. “Come, come!” said she, “let us talk no longer about me, but go down. There is Frida coming for us. They have doubtless all arrived.” And taking her little sister by the hand, she ran off, scarcely touching the massive balustrade as she flew down the stairs.
“You did not tell me you were expecting visitors,” said Fleurange.
“Only some friends and relatives. Since my Uncle Heinrich lost his wife, he and his son have taken their Christmas dinner with us. The family formerly assembled at his house. You are going to make his acquaintance, and that of our fine cousin Felix. The rest are our friends, and will soon be yours.” Hilda paused. “You doubtless know that Hansfelt is my father’s friend, and was the companion of his youth?” she continued at length.
“Hansfelt!” exclaimed Fleurange. “What! Karl Hansfelt, the great poet?”
We have already remarked that Fleurange perfectly understood her mother’s native tongue. The poems of the person just mentioned were sufficiently celebrated at that time for her to be familiar with them, and even know some of them by heart.
“And he is your friend? And shall I see him?”
“Yes,” replied Hilda, “you will see him often. And you will also see,” she added, as if eager to change the subject, “a young artist who is beginnings be quite popular. His name is Julian Steinberg, and he is a friend of Overbeck’s. I will leave Clara to introduce him to you.” A significant smile accompanied the last words, and Fleurange, comprehending, or nearly so, the state of affairs, descended with her cousin into the large drawing-room, which, as well as the dining-room, was on the ground floor.